Fairy Holiday

Wow what a washed out bank holiday! However we did have fun at the OH's parents with lovely BBQ weather on Saturday, and lots of learning to 'fly' with little Jessica.

So today was catch up with crafting day (after visiting the local fete to offer our support in this awful weather!). First was finishing my rag doll. I do not often use my sewing machine as I do not have anywhere to keep it out permanently and as a consequence I am not great with it, Nor am I brilliant at following sewing instructions lol. This is the dolly I was making:

And this is what I have so far:

She is definitely a rag doll though lol.

Then I made a card to make myself feel better. Jessica is very much into fairies and so I created a Fairy Holiday card:

The image is an Aliciabel digi and is coloured with Promarkers in Twilight sky; Gold; Poppy and Royal Blue. I used a paper from the sweet treats paper pad, for the fairy tag and the background circle, and a paper from my Fairies paper-stack for the background. The card was put together following this sketch from SSS @ Catch the Bug:
The Fairy row on the bottom replaces the dots.

I would also like to enter this card into these challenges:

Aliciabel #9 Summer Holidays

Country View #31 Summer Time

live and love crafts #38 Blue

Digi Chooseday Use 2 papers
polkadoodle Things with wings
C4C301 Tag you're it!
LOC #93 Use mainly blue

Thank you for looking
Hugz Tinz

Believing the Bells

Hi there,

What a miserable few days we have had! Lots of rain, but I am sure the plants are appreciating it. I am just worried about blight as this is perfect weather for it, warm and wet!

I am finally able to relax a little after the Produce show on Sunday, where I came the overall winner :). I did put a lot of work into my entries though and am so pleased. I got first in the vegetable category, first in the preserves category and joint first for the fruit category. Here is some of my prize winning fruit:

I have also made another Christmas card (I think I may end up with excess cards this year lol):

The base card is an embossed papermania card, with embossed dots or circles. I then used a CD-Rom that came free with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine to print the patterned papers, sentiment and digital image. The paper was roughly torn on the diagonal, and the Jingle Bells sentiment added over it using 3D foam pads. The image was coloured with Sharpie markers (as I have only just bought them and wanted to play - but there really are not enough colours to shade properly). I then die-cut the frame from a designer paper in my stash, with glitter musical notes.

I would like to enter this card for the following five challenges:

Winter Wonderland Christmas Carols/Songs

Simply Less is Moore Sketch 

Vs Sweet Ideas #37 Anything Goes

scrapbook stamp society #73 Frame it

abc christmas Q for Quantum Leap (This is colourful, with die-cuts and Frosty, lyrics and polka dots)

Audio Book Review

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George

This is an Inspector Lynley crime novel. Lynley is called up to Cumbria to investigate the apparent accidental drowning of a young man. However his time on the investigation puts strain on many relationships. Firstly there is tension between himself and his direct boss, who has to be kept in the dark about his investigation. Then there is tension between his boss and his partner, as he needs his partners help to investigate some details. Tension is caused between his two friends whom he takes up to Cumbria to help him, when Deborah finds out one of the people involved has a similar personal issue as she herself does. This in turn causes the lady in question to panic, raising further suspicions. Finally there is tension between the members of the family.

Amongst all this there are two children who are trying to come to terms with their Fathers deception, betrayal and then death. This causes more information to come to light, but also provides an interesting, if unrelated, side-story in itself.

This is a very good book with a lot of side-stories, none of which are interconnected. It is almost like having several books in one, and it is difficult to imagine that one family could have such a stream of bad luck. The ending has both a depressing aspect and a happy side, with each individual story being realistic in and of itself, if not when all put together. Also as this is a 22 disc book it is suitable for long journeys as it will keep you interested and does not run out quickly. I would certainly recommend this story.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Hugz Tinz

Under the sea

Hi there,

After staying up until midnight last night to make my lemon marmalade (or lemon curd) I decided today I was just going to relax and make a card. Here is what I came up with:

I made an easel base out of white 220gsm card, and adhered a panel to the front from the same card. I layered a blue fairy paper, which looked like underwater flowers, and butterflies on blue paper and attached these to the base of the card. A sentiment sticker was added to kraft card to make the prop for the card top. I got a Gorjuss mermaid stamp a few weeks ago and decided now was the time to use it. This sort of stamp I would usually colour in with alcohol markers or watercolours, but this time I wanted to try leaving it uncoloured. I stamped the image onto blue, watery paper, which came free with a Simply Homemade magazine. This was then adhered to the easel front and butterfly washi tape layered on the top and bottom of the panel.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Card Mania #71 Anniversary

crafting by designs Anything Goes

The Stamping Boutique At the beach

polkadoodle Use something new (stamp)

alphabet challenge M for Mermaids

Deep Ocean Challenge #110 Maritime

Ooh-la-la #187 One for the boys

artistic inspirations #138 Anything Goes

SOS #215 Layer it on me

LOC #91 Insects

suzy bee  #93 Monochrome

We went to a pet show at the weekend, and entered Arthur bunny and some of the mice and both came second in their categories!

Thank you for looking,

hugz Tinz

Pink and Floral

Hi there,

What a miserable day it has been - although I am sure the greenery has appreciated it very much! Going to be a busy weekend this time - got to take the bunnies to the vets tomorrow (only 40 mins away!) and then out at an open day on Sunday - with the pets of course! lol.

However I have made one of the last ATC collections for the swap group (except for a Christmas swap), which is pretty and pink and floral. The cards were based around this sketch:
from atlantic hearts.

Here are the cards:

 They all have a die-cut central strip, and a glitter topper piece. Only one is missing the ribbon, which I used pearls for instead.
I wish to enter the collection for the following challenges:

crafting by designs 3 or more layers

glitter n sparkle 149 Add some flowers

CCM #145 Warm Summer Colours
creative card crew Sparkle
art impressions #166 Anything Goes
Crafty Calender BINGO (pink, pearls/gems, ribbon/lace)

ATC #1

I used pink ric-rac ribbon, a multi-layered pink glitter flower topper, and a die-cut tag, which i edged with maroon pretty colour ink, and wrote the sentiment in Papermania watercolour pens.


ATC #2

This one uses pearls to mimic flowers behind the journalling strip. The glitter topper finises the card, but I am not sure if it needs something else?

ATC #3

This card used the remainder of the pink velvet ric-rac ribbon and some gingham ribbon, along with a pale turquoise floral topper strip and two pink flower toppers.

ATC #4

For the final card I used some pink, floral ribbon and the gingham ribbon, with a bow topper strip. I added a gem to the centre of the bow, which is actually cerise, but has come out purple in this photo. The glitter sentiment topper finishes this card off.

Thank you for looking
Hugz Tinz

Lazy Summer

This card takes its inspiration from what I like to be able to do when I have a summer holiday - which is lots of reading lol.

I used a corner punch to round the corners of the base card and then added Papermania glitter ribbon in black and Dovecraft glitter card. I also used the new neon gems, as well as a black pearl and some dark iridescent diamantes as accents. The image is an Aliciabel image, and the sentiment was done in word on my computer (after I discovered my Serif Page Plus 9 does not work on my new laptop!). Both were die-cut using nesting dies. The image was coloured using te following Promarkers - Almond and Sunkissed Pink for the skin, Pale Pink for the lips, Walnut for the eyes, Tequila Sunrise for the hair, Summer Sun and Lime Twist for the dress and accessories, and Black Flex marker for te beanbag.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

Crafting by Designs - Anything Goes

Aliciabel #9 Summer Holiday

creative card crew #93 Sparkle

creative moments Summer Sun

fussy and fancy  #145 Lazy Summer Days

sketchy colours Sketch #253

PFP 308 Summer Lovin'
allsorts Inspired by Summer
Sweet Stampin Anything but Birthday



Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.
Hugz Tinz

Bee Home

Hello everybody,

What a lovely day we had here in Rutland yesterday. The sun was shining fr most of the day ad the weather was still balmy at midnight!! We started the day off on the right foot, with a sheep chase down the road to get it back into the field, as some idiot had ignored the sign on the canal gate, and left the gate wide open,allowing the sheep to wander out! Luckily onlyone brave girltook the opportunity, but my poor bare legs did not enjoy the nettles :( lol.

After grabbing another couple of punnets of gooseberries from down on the allotment we went out for another stroll along a dis-used quarry - this one is now a reserve - and gt a couple of good butterfly pictures, and also saw a ground beetle catch a house fly! That was interesting.

When we finally got back home I set about making this nature inspired card:

The image stamps are from Pink Petticoat. The bee is stamped in versamark ink, whilst the floral circle was coloured with Papermania watercolour pens and stamped onto the base card. The bee was then coloured with the same pens. The strip down the side was asked and stamped with Pretty Colour rainbow ink pad. To finish a googly eye was added to the bee.

I wish to enter this card for the following challenges:

OLS #19 Strip Down

Simply Create Too #91 Anything Goes

Simply Less is Moore The eyes have it! (Googly eye on Bee)

allsorts Inspired by Summer

I have also finished reading another Jodi Picoult book called Sing you Home, which is about gay rights and embryo implantation, In this story a couple break up after trying for a child for many years, and leave three eggs frozen at the clinic. When Zoe gets married to her new partner, who is female, and decides that she wishes to use the eggs (as she herself no longer has any viable eggs), her ex, who has turned to religion, starts to also think about the eggs and how he could use them, which leads to a court trial into who gets the embryos.

As usual Jodi picks up on a lot of very relevant issues surrounding religion itself and also surrounding the gay rights movement. This is a very intense book, with angles from both sides being relevant and making it difficult to say who should or should not be the winner in the case. However, the outcome is much better than occurs in most of Jodi's books, and shows that sometimes compromise is the best way to keep everybody happy.

Thank you for looking at my blog.

Hugz Tinz

Froggy Navigator

Well I am glad it is now the middle of the week. I am exhausted already! I am trying to do some meditation in the evenings, but by the time I am ready to settle I am also ready for bed lol. However, I have made this cute Frog card tonight:

The image is from Pink Petticoat, as is the sentiment, and is coloured using Promarker pens in Pine, Gold, Antique Pink and Mint Green. The water area was done using pretty colour ink pen. The strip along the top was masked and matted with a pretty colour ink quad.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

papertake weekly Anything Goes

ilovepromarkers 281 In the garden

artistic inspirations #137 Water

digi chooseday Animals

simply create too #91 Anything Goes

Quirky Crafts #16 Quirky's gone fishing

abc-challenge O for Open

OLS #19 Strip Down

For those of you that are following my progress the fish tank is now at 96 and a half hours:

Audio Book Review

The Navigator by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos

When some artefacts stolen from the Baghdad museum are finally found it becomes obvious somebody wants to steal one of them. As Austin nearly drowns on the ship they are travelling on, he becomes interested in what the deal is with the particular artefact, as very little is known about it. He uncovers a secret of violence that dates back further than imaginable and a baby-faced killer.

Full of mystery and intrigue, as is typical of Clive Cussler books, with lots of action. Suspense is high through much of the book and it appears to pull on a lot of history, although not knowing much about Jefferson I am unsure how much is based on fact. I really enjoyed listening to this book – the reader was very good with accents too.

Thankyou for looking

Hugz Tinz

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Well hello again,

I have been making a Christmas card this evening - based around Rudolph. I have some mini scalloped square card blanks that work really well with the smaller stamps, and so I used a Smirk Rudolph stamp for the card.

 I made a snowy panel out of an old Christmas card and stamped the Rudolph straight onto this, with one being slightly off the edge of the card. These were coloured using the 'Brights' promarker set (and an Aqua). I added a red rhinestone for Rudolphs nose, and the sentiment in red also.

I would like to enter this card for the following challenges:

abc Christmas O-Off the Edge

Jingle Belles Cookies for Santa inspiration pic: (using the reindeer and the colours)

Christmas at Sweet Stamping Oh Deer!

C4C297  Happy

crafty hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 240 Two of something (deers)

Winter Wonderland Christmas Carols/Songs (Rudolph...)

I also thought you might like to see a couple of the butterflies that posed for me over the weekend. Have you all submitted results for the Big Butterfly Count - it still runs until 9th August!